Can something that is wrong still be understandable?

Khairy Jamaluddin's (in songkok) latest statement stopping short of strongly condemning rowdy Umno members who stormed the Penang State Assembly yesterday has cast doubt on whether he is all that different from the likes of other Umno leaders. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, May 22, 2014.Is this the Umno playbook, to say that some action is wrong but it is perfectly understandable why it was done? Perhaps only to political
chameleons.

Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin said that what the Umno Youth thugs did was wrong but understandable, echoing the same sentiment that Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had expressed when talking about the cow-head protesters of Shah Alam in 2009.

Yesterday, Khairy was referring to the Umno members in a mob that entered the Penang State Assembly yesterday, demanding an apology from Seri Delima assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer for using unparliamentary language to describe Umno.

In effect, he wants the chattering class to view him as enlightened and different from the usual Umno type but at the same time, wants to score points with his party members.

It is this straddling the fence approach that cast a shadow of doubt on whether he is all that different from the likes of Datuk Ahmad Maslan, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi, etc., who believe the party is right even when it is wrong.

He [Khairy] wants the chattering class to view him as enlightened and different from the usual Umno type but at the same time, wants to score points with his party members.

Storming a legislative assembly is wrong. Period. There cannot be any mitigating circumstances. And herein lies the fatal flaw of the Umno politician: they can't distinguish right from wrong.

Was DAP's Rayer wrong in calling Umno "celaka"? Of course, he was. And it should have been left for the speaker and his party to have sanctioned him.

If they did not, then DAP's mantra about due process, fairness and justice would have sounded hollow.

That is something that Umno should point out to the DAP – that it has members and politicians who preach but don't practise what they say.

But not taking to the streets or storming a building. That isn't quite our culture, as Umno leaders are wont to say ahead of opposition-led protests. Or is it a case of do as I say and not do as I do?

What Malaysia needs is a class of leaders who can call a spade a spade without excuses and without uncouth language. From both sides of the political divide.